The storage of electronic data, and more generally, the management of electronic data, has become increasingly important. With the growth of the Internet, and of cloud computing in particular, the need for data storage capacity, and for methods of efficiently managing stored data, continue to increase. Many different types of storage media are currently used to store data, including disk drives, tape drives, optical disks, redundant arrays of independent disks (RAIDs), Fibre channel-based storage area networks (SANs), etc.
When accessing data stored on a storage medium, a computer generally follows a set of predetermined procedures. For example, a computer's operating system typically uses a process known as mounting to make a storage medium accessible through the computer's file system. Mounting a medium on which data is stored can ensure that a computer recognizes the medium's format. Files can only be accessed on a mounted medium.
The steps required to mount a storage medium may vary depending on factors such as the nature of the medium, the medium's file system, etc. In many cases, a series of mounting procedures corresponding to various aspects of the medium's file system must be performed. After a medium is successfully mounted, a computer typically incorporates the medium's data and creates a mount point through which the data stored on the medium is accessed.
In many cases, the process of mounting a storage medium is complicated by the need to repair certain portions of the data stored on the medium. For example, certain operations, such as copying data of an active volume to a second storage medium, can result in logical inconsistencies to the second medium's file system. If a computer attempts to mount the second storage medium after such an operation has been performed, any logical damage that has occurred to the second medium's file system can prevent the stored data from being mounted successfully. In such cases, data repair, or data recovery, involving salvaging corrupted or inaccessible data, may be necessary. After the stored data is repaired, the second storage medium may be successfully mounted. However, if the copy operation involves copying an active volume (in which the data in the original volume is constantly changing), it may be necessary to keep track of any data newly written to the original volume. To complete the copy operation, it may be necessary or desirable also to copy the newly written data to the second volume. However, any repair operation performed with respect to the second volume or medium may permanently alter the second volume in a manner that is inconsistent with the copy operation.